THE

FORESTS OF SOUTH INDIA.

FIRST ANNUAL REPORT ON FOREST OPERATIONS IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY.

From H. CLEGHORN, Esq., M.D., Conservator of Forests, to the SECRETARY to GOVERNMENT, Fort St George.

MANGALORE, 1st May 1858.

SIR,-1. I have the honour to report, for the information of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, that during the past year I proceeded on my first tour of inspection, traversed Mysore, and visited the depôts at the mouths of nearly all the rivers on the Malabar coast, examining great part of the Western Ghats, with a view to ascertain the exact state of the government forests, their extent and capabilities. I travelled through the most wooded portions along the chain of ghats, ascending and descending by the following mountain passes, Anisy, Arbyle, Bun, Sampajee, Perambady, Sispára, Tambacherry, Palghat, Sigur, Kunur, from the Bombay frontier down to Ponány. I afterwards went across the Anamalai Hills and round the slopes of the Nilgiri Hills. I also made a circuit of Wainád, and twice visited the Conolly plantations at Nellambur, being altogether eight months absent from the presidency.

2. As I have already submitted my views at length on several topics in accordance with the instructions of government, such as Jackatalla Plantations, Nilgiri Woods, Utakamand Garden, Anamalai Forests, Canara Forests, Striharicotta Jungles, price of timber, memorandum on gutta percha, I shall here confine

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myself to a summary of my observations on the forests generally, and of the operations of the forest department during the first year of its existence, mentioning the further measures contemplated when it is in a state of more complete organization.

3. In the beginning of this century, an immense almost unbroken forest covered the Western Ghats, from near the watershed to the most elevated ridges,-left to nature, thinly peopled, abounding in wild animals, and all the higher portions, without exception, covered with timber.* Now the passing traveller, looking down from the higher peaks of Coorg or Malabar, conceives that an inexhaustible forest lies below him; but as he descends the ghats, he finds that the best timber has been cut away, and that the wood-contractor is felling in more remote localities. I refer especially to teak, blackwood, and poon spars, which are every year becoming more scarce in accessible situations. The practice in India has been the converse of that in Europe, where the soft wood is thinned out and the hard wood left. Here the valuable kinds are removed and the scrub left. By one of these authorities (Buchanan), the burning of jungles was recommended as a sanatory measure, and to diminish the number of wild animals; but circumstances have much changed. Now the axe of the coffee planter and of the kumari cultivator have made extensive and often wanton havoc, devastating a large portion of the area of the primeval forest. The former is encouraged as endeavouring to rescue the soil for legitimate purposes (except when the timber is peculiarly valuable); but the squatter, who clears without leave in one year the land which he abandons the next, is punished and repressed. The waste has been altogether prohibited in Mysore and the Bombay collectorates, and is checked to a great extent in Canara, but has not altogether ceased. The exertions of the collector and sub-collector have, however, been very successful in keeping under the destruction, called kumari, caused by vagabond tribes in burning wood, with the view of raising from the ashes a crop of inferior grain.

4. In Canara, the forest rules, framed by Messrs Maltby and * Dr Hove's Travels, 1786. Dr F. Buchanan's Journey, 1801. Lord Valentia's Travels, 1804.

Hall, and amended by Messrs Fisher and Robinson, are calculated to ensure a regulated and safe expenditure, if the subordinates do their duty, and if the trees be marked by the conservancy establishment. In regard to forest arrangements, I may observe that Canara, though still imperfectly organised, is in advance of every other district. The arrangements for the conservation of the teak and blackwood are so far satisfactory; but there are still difficulties as to the supply of firewood to large towns, and of house-building timber in those parts where there are no auctions.

5. Wants of Public Departments. The requirements of the Indian navy, the Madras and Bombay railways, the public works and telegraph departments, have been unusually heavy, and the partially organised establishment was seriously crippled and curtailed for a time by the removal of officers, overseers, elephants and bullocks, required in the field during this eventful year, so that the pressing indents of various departments have been met with difficulty, and in some cases imperfectly.

6. Railways. The progress of the railway has produced marvellous changes on the face of the country as regards tree vegetation in some districts. I may specify Palghat, the Shevarai Hills, and the North Arcot Hills; in these the old woods have everywhere fallen, to meet the urgent demand for timber; and the pressure continues to exist in the central portions of the line between Vániembady and Palghat: at the two extremities, the supply has been completed. In the Official Road Book, published by Major Scott not many years ago, opposite Waliár, we find this remark, "Dense jungle, beware of elephants;" but in looking from the staging bungalow, the traveller sees several tentative lines of rail, each 200 yards broad, and so extensive a clearing of the neighbouring forest, that no elephant could easily find a cover. The encircling hills, formerly crowned with timber, are now to a considerable degree laid bare. These changes, so far as I can learn, have been the gradual result of unrestricted cutting, but much aggravated, during the last few years, in conrection with the enormous demand for railway sleepers, and for the department of public works. In the contracts which have been made for the supply of the Bombay railway, 11⁄2 rupee has

been charged per tree. In some contracts for the supply of the Madras railway, 3 or 4 annas has been the seignorage per sleeper, according to the kind of wood and the facility of transport; and, with the permission of government, I would recommend that at least three annas be invariably paid.

7. In other places, and from other causes, wasteful cutting has been observed to a less injurious extent. Lieutenant Beddome's report on the Pulney Hills, communicated by government to the "Madras Journal of Science" (1857), describes the devastation which has been committed there in the formation of plantain gardens. The green hills have been stripped of their woods, and much of their beauty has departed. The reckless cutting there, however, has been vigorously checked by the collector, under orders from government.

8. Slovenly felling.-The axe formerly, in many districts, was laid to the trunk one yard from the ground, while a further waste took place from diffuse hacking over a broad surface. This unnecessary loss of timber has been prohibited by a printed circular, enjoining all contractors, as well as forest employés, to cut within one foot and a half of the ground, otherwise the contractors are not paid.

9. Wasteful trimming.*-The former plan of cutting logs, by which one-half the timber was wasted, is now obsolete. I have only seen one or two specimens, and I hope that dragholes, as shown in fig. 1, may be altogether dispensed with by an improved applica

tion of ropes and the introduction of sling carts, &c. The method. of trimming logs, so that they may fit carts in length and width, is still prevalent in many parts, but is giving way to a better system. The old state of things continues only at a distance

*See Capt. F. C. Cotton in "Madras Journal of Science," N. Ser. vol. ii., p. 94.

from check and control, or where there are peculiarities of tenure and few facilities of communication, as in Wainád.

10. Proposed system of operations. The trees are classified according to size.*

1st class, 6 feet in girth.
2d do. 4 do.

3d class, 3 feet and upwards. 4th do. under 3 feet.

It is proposed that in every forest to be worked, all first-class trees should be marked, and such a proportion should be cut down as will be naturally replaced by those of the second class. This is clearly a sound principle, and, if carried into practice, will prevent the exhaustion of the forests. It would be obviously impossible to fell and remove one twenty-fourth of the trees of the first class in every district. Therefore, to facilitate the execution of this principle, it is necessary to divide each assistant's range into six divisions, one of which only shall be worked at one time. These divisions should be formed as much as possible in accordance with the geographical features of the district, and the forest operations should be confined to the district having the largest quantity of ripe wood.

11. Saving of Fragments.-In my visit to the Anamalai and Wainád forests, I found the larger branches, tops and butts, left on the side of the road, or in the place where the tree was cut, exposed to the heat of the sun and to the annual fires. I desired that all such pieces as would bear the expense of removal should be brought out of the Anamalai and Heggadevincotta forests, and that no wastage be allowed in future. The importance of saving every foot of teak (at a time when Government has been put to great shifts for its own requirements) has been strongly impressed upon every member of the department. I am also anxious that the use of this timber should be disallowed for common purposes, as camp furniture, hospital almirahs, accoutrement boxes, and the like.

12. Auction Sale of Timber.—It having been considered desirable that an auction sale of timber unsuited for naval purposes

*The system here suggested was originally proposed by Dr Brandis, Conservator of Forests in Burma.